"Eyes are the windows to your soul."

And your soles.

Hello Pilates People!!!!

First off, sorry Jenni. I had to say it. She told me not to do it but I couldn't resist the anatomy nerd "windows to your soles," joke.

Secondly, if you follow us on Instagram, you saw we're considering adding a physio ball LIVE class to our schedule! So a question for you:

• Do you have a physio ball or are you willing to get one? (here's the one we suggest for quick delivery and price point)

• What time would work for you best? Mondays at 10am, Wednesdays at 10am or 5pm, Thursdays at 6pm?

Let us know and we'll get to planning! The question really is: to physio ball or not to physio ball? You get to tell us!

And thirdly, a reminder that we're hosting our next donation class on Sunday, May 9th at 10am for Covenant House! You are now able to book into this class either with your previously purchased class pack OR with a "Covenant House donation" class in the amount you'd like to donate!

Oh...and we're hoping to make this our FIRST OUTDOORS CLASS of all time, and the season :) So if you're in NYC and can get to Domino Park (in Williamsburg), PLEASE BOOK YOUR SPOT NOW! We can only take 15 people in person for this first class so GET YOUR SPOT WHILE YOU CAN!

Not in NYC or miss that first 15 people mark (or just don't want to go to Williamsburg)? No worries! We'll be online for this class as well!

To join us virtually, please click here
To join us in Domino Park, please click here

So, why am I making weird anatomy jokes again?
Well, I'm me. That's what I do.
But also, we're going to get into the connection between your eyes and your feet this week, because believe it or not, they're connected and it's a pretty big deal.

If you ever had the chance to take class with me in person, you almost certainly wound up in a precarious position on the equipment at some point and heard me say, "Your body's balance follows your eyes. If you look down, your body thinks you want to go down. Please don't look down right now."

That's not any different on the mat, other than I'm not nearly as afraid of you falling because you're not that far from the floor and there's not a bunch of metal between you and safety.

Which reminds me, get ready to fall this week. Hopefully a lot.

Because we want to play with and test out this connection to make it perfectly clear that it's real and important.

How is this related to nerves? Well, if you look at the anatomy of your eye, it all connects into your optic nerve, which in turn feeds into your spinal cord, which goes out into the rest of your body and back up into your brain. Your eye is literally just a nerve outlet and its entire purpose is to take in information to influence the rest of your body.

Think about it, you're walking down the street and suddenly something comes into your path - a car, a bird, another human. Do you consciously stop to think about what's happening and work through the steps of, "Oh wow, something is in my way. Now I stop my feet so I can avoid slamming into that thing," or does your body just react to avoid the thing?

Your body just reacts, right? That's your nervous system, friends.

Except, perhaps in the instance where you're not looking ahead and don't see the thing (hello cellphones). That lack of sight takes away your body's ability to react in time and you probably wind up with a face full of feathers, or in my case, a face full of stop sign.

Yup. It's happened. More than once.

And if you're sitting there going, okay fine, but what about people who can't see?

Ah my friend, you have unlocked the second part of this week. Yes, there are people who can't see and we've all heard of how their other senses take over to give them sight. That is so true.

Their ability to hear, smell, taste and FEEL is often very heightened in lieu of their ability to perceive their surroundings through sight. So when something comes into their path, they can hear it, smell it, maybe taste it, but definitely FEEL IT.

How? Well, there are neuroreceptors in your skin that work similarly to your eyes in the way that they tell your body about your surroundings. They give you information about how things feel (hot, cold, sticky, solid, rough, smooth....etc.), how stable they are, how close they are and so much more. These nerve endings are the reason you don't try running fast on ice (unless that's your thing) and why you quickly pull your hand away from the hot stove.

And they're in your feet.

So when you're standing vertically, you have your eyes at the top to take in the world around you and your feet at the bottom doing the same thing.

The connection between your eyes and your feet is so important for your movement practice and your every day existence in this world. This connection is your fight and flight response. Your eyes see danger and your feet either freeze or flee. Or vice versa, your feet perceive danger under you and your eyes suddenly search for it to help you process and make sense of what's happening.

This stuff is SO IMPORTANT.

And ya, it's not something we think about all the time because it's one of those connections that we just take for granted. In most cases, until something stands in the way of this connection (loss of vision/balance/coordination/reflex response...etc.), it's not something we would typically consider.

I don't know about you, but if I've learned anything in this past year it's not to take anything for granted, so I'm working hard to recognize and appreciate all of the little wonders in life and more specifically, in my body. Because this is the one thing I know I'll wake up with every day and the more I know about it, the more I can communicate with it and the more I can work with what it's telling me.

Just like everything else, it's bound to change and I want to learn how to speak its language so I can tune into those changes and support them.

It's really just about getting to know yourself, inside and out, friends. Because YOU are the person you live life with and navigate this world with, from beginning to end. So let's give ourselves the chance to learn as much as possible about who and what we are.

Thank you for being you and bringing it all to the table all of the time.

All our love,
Cassandra + Pilates People